What on earth is it going to take with this man?
‘The answer is still no, Edwin.’ In the parlour, her hand restless on the mantelpiece, Evie took a deep steadying breath and met his imperious gaze. ‘I do not wish to marry you.’
She’d only agreed to consider Edwin Cooper’s proposal, and now that she’d considered it, all of two days, her answer was no.
Yet he continued wheedling while in her parlour, in her house. Hardly gentlemanly.
‘Come along, my dear. You’ve given me no reason why not.’ He tweaked that silly pale waxed moustache of his again.
She scoffed at that. ‘Not a requirement.’
His ginger eyebrows arched. ‘I doubt you’ll find another man with prospects such as mine who’ll put up with your—let’s face it—many odd behaviours.’
Evie challenged him this time. ‘I beg your pardon? What odd behaviours?’ She was quite sure she didn’t have odd behaviours, but just lately he’d begun to slip into their conversation the idea that there was something amiss about her. This was one of the reasons she no longer wished to have anything to do with Edwin.
Tired of it, and refusing to trade insults, she stood her ground. She’d already waited too long. This matter would be dealt with simply and with dignity, and that would be that. It was her right to refuse his offer of marriage.
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